Ignore the Christian White Guy, and Listen To These Women About Abortion

At one of the many Planned Parenthood rallies in Portland, Maine, this one in 2015, a nurse practitioner for the organization spoke, making it clear that “a few white men” were not going to interfere with her work.

I disagree with her work. But, what do you expect. I’m a white man.

And if you really want to pile on the stereotypes, I’m a Christian.

No wonder why I’m waging a war on women (or so, the Democratic Party strategists would have you believe, and some gullible media buy into).

The March for Life is this Friday in Washington D.C., a chance for 100,000 citizens to express their belief that abortion is wrong.

I will not be there.

But my daughters will be marching. My wife hopes to join them next year.

Um, didn’t they get the memo?

Sorry to ruin the stereotype. In my family, the staunchest opponents to abortion are the females. Whenever mom became pregnant, the family celebrated the child in the womb. Our children attended every ultrasound to find out if they were welcoming a new brother or sister.

It never occurred to them that the child within the womb was not human life.

In our country, the Declaration of Independence states, we hold “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Life is the one, true right we have. And someone else’s freedom (choice) doesn’t cancel the right to life.

I know, you were expecting me to quote Genesis and warn of God’s wrath. Can we stop with the stereotypes?

“What happens when both a woman and her developing fetus are regarded as human beings entitled to person and bodily rights? Any way you cut it, their rights are always going to conflict. So, what’s the reasonable response? It could start by treating both parties at conflict as is they were equal human beings.”

What of the feminists? Despite another stereotype, magnified by the media, there are plenty of feminists against abortion. Feminist author Frederica Mathewes-Green once was strongly pro-abortion. “The bumper sticker on my car read, ‘Don’t labor under a misconception; legalize abortion,’ “ she wrote in a National Reviewarticle.

Over time, Mathewes-Green changed her mind about abortion. The deciding moment was when she read an article in Esquire Magazine, written by a surgeon who witnessed an abortion for the first time. The surgeon had been pro-choice. He watched the abortionist inserted a needle in the mother’s abdomen, injecting the womb with a solution. (This is a procedure no longer used because it was not as effective; i.e., it did not kill the child every time.) The abortionist left the needle in and the surgeon watched in horror.

In the surgeon’s words: “I see something other than what I expected here … It is the hub of the needle that is in the woman’s belly that has jerked. First to one side. Then to the other side. Once more it wobbles, is tugged, like a fishing line nibbled by a sunfish.” He realized he was seeing the fetus’s desperate fight for life. And as he watched, he saw the movement of the syringe slow down and then stop. The child was dead.”

The doctor’s final words in the article: “Whatever else is said in abortion’s defense the vision of that other defense (from the child) will not vanish from my eyes … For what can language do against the truth of what I saw?”

Mathewes-Green became a pro-life feminist, sticking up for both women and their children.

“This issue gets presented as if it’s a tug of war between the woman and the baby,” she wrote. “We see them as mortal enemies, locked in a fight to the death. But that’s a strange idea, isn’t it? It must be the first time in history when mothers and their own children have been assumed to be at war.”

Pro-choice feminists try to silence their pro-life counterparts. Recall the March for Women last January. Pro-life feminist groups were not allowed. Yes, it was a march to empower women, as long they were the right kind of women.

It is a reminder of the political censoring taking place. Last April, Democratic National Committee chairman Thomas Perez said, “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable.”

The Democrats did some backtracking from Perez’s comments, but the sentiment remains.

Then there is Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, who has pledged $650 million of his country’s resources to promote and fund abortion services in other countries, especially in Africa (a move that some would call another form of colonization).

Now Trudeau is changing the requirements for employers to receive funds through the Canada Summer Jobs program. Employers must not oppose Canada’s pro-abortion laws.

Any group that is against abortion, according to Trudeau, “is not in line where we are as a government and, quite frankly, where we are as a society … you’re more than allowed to have whatever beliefs you like. But when those beliefs lead to actions …”

In other words, you are free to believe … Just don’t follow your beliefs.

Glamour Magazine once proclaimed in a headline: “Justin Trudeau, Feminist Hero.” It is O.K. to listen to some white men, apparently.

However, there are feminists who are against abortion. Trudeau is not their hero.

Moreover, there are all kinds of people who believe ending life is wrong. Don’t take it from this white man. Ask the women in the March for Life; strong, committed, liberated women.

Like my daughters.

Kevin Thomas is a writer and former teacher, living with his wife and children in Standish, Maine.